The evening world., 1887-12-09
SLICK Mr.. HARRIS CAUGHT.
A Thief with n Faculty for Getting Out OF
Yankee Juils.

Inspector. Byrnes has got William Harris,
alias Pratt, alias Hurley, In the tolls and will
send him to Hartford, where he is wanted for
robbery.
Harris is one Of the smartest pickpockets
and shoplifters in the country, and boasts
that prison bars have not yet been made
strong enough to resist his efforts Mt escape.
Once q respectable druggist in Boston, he
preferred n life of crime and sold out his
store and began picking pockets, at which he
was very successful.
His most conspicuous crime was q bold
attempt to blackmail Walter Malley, of New
Haven, in connection with the murder of
pretty Jennie Cramer at Savin Rock. Harris
claimed to have in his possession q number
of discriminating letters written by Malley
to Blanche Douglass, and demanded $40, 900
as the price of silence.
He was arrested, spent several months in
the Tombs and was discharged, Malley de-
Ginning to prosecute.
On Wednesday last Harris was taken from
the Jail in Hartford to the Superior Court Of
that city to answer to an indictment for petit
larceny.
The officer advanced to the bench to an
nounce that all the prisoners were safe In the
pen" when u noise startled everybody. and
Harris was seen escaping over the side Of
the pen" and through q window to the
yard.
A squad of officers gave pursuit, but Harris
NoNENu II ~" SoNhBSNa Aha
night he arrived in this city.
A telegram was sent to Inspector Byrnes,
who examined his gallery, found n picture of
Harris and his record. and instructed Ser
geant Detectives Crowley and Mcclure to
bring him in.
The detectives visited the old haunts of the
thief, found him in o famous resort for
crooks in Rivington street, near the Bowery,
subterranean cell at Police Headquarters. He
was cool, and when Inspector Byrnes told
him he would be returned to Hartford he
smiled and said
That's all right. Inspector. It is your
duty to send me back and il 10 for the officers
there to keep me-"
shall send you away in handouts" said
the Inspector.
That's all right, too" answered Harris.
I've got away from them before, and I'll
Harris has had a N eventful career and
proudly boasts of being a slick thief. His
picture is No. 1,660 in the Rogue's Gallery.
In 1878 he committed his first crime of pick
ing pockets at Martha's Vineyard, and was
put away for three years.
In 1881 he tried his unsuccessful blackmail
game on Walter Malley.
In 1882 he was given q year in Boston for
shoplifting, and Immediately upon his
release did some more of the same kind of
business in Lynn, Mass.
He was sentenced for a year in the prison
at Ipswich, and two months thereafter sawed
off the bars of his window and escaped.
In a few weeks he was nabbed and was re-
turned to Ipswich. But again he escaped,
this time with the aid of a false key he had
manufactured. Then he went to Chicago.
Inspector Byrnes sent out q description OF
him and he was recaptured and again returned
to Ipswich to serve out the unfinished term.
In September last Harris made a raid on
New Britain, Conn, breaking into q store
and stealing q lot Of clothing, which he
shipped to Hartford. He was arrested and
indicted three times, and made his escape fol
the third time in his criminal career.
He has been q criminal nine years and Ii
only thirty years old.